Carl Bretzke – Recent Work will be the second solo exhibit by this artist at Susan Calloway Fine Arts. In 2015, Mark Jenkins of The Washington Post described Bretzke’s paintings as "simultaneously intimate and detached... The artist's unadorned style recalls Edward Hopper and the Ashcan school." The new exhibit features a mix of plein air sketches and more refined studio paintings. Bretzke’s range of subject matter is fairly broad although typically features vehicles and/or figures in a landscape or cityscape setting. His work includes both daytime and nocturnal light effects. Born and living in Minnesota, Bretzke has a clear vision when it comes to capturing the feeling of a winter scene. In 2016, one of his plein air winter paintings (Winter Sunset Near Farmers Market - exhibited and sold here in the gallery) won the Grand Prize in the 2016 Plein Air Salon. Bretzke is a nationally known plein air artist with numerous additional awards, including several best-of-show and first-place ribbons from across the country. When asked to describe his own work Bretzke says, “I am drawn to overlooked images of everyday life often juxtaposed upon some form of beauty that results in an interesting combination; 'tensioning the opposites,' as a teacher of mine once said."